Handout - Western Christadelphian Bible School

the tower of Antonia and that night a section of the second wall fell where the Jews had
undermined earlier Roman siege towers (see previous item).
8. Saturday, June 28, AD70 (Tamuz 3 - Wars 6:1:6): A Roman soldier led a valiant,
though doomed, broad-daylight attack (6 th hour of the day) upon a new Jewish wall
erected behind the second wall, exposed when a portion of the second wall fell two
nights before (see previous item). The soldier’s name was Sabinus and he was
followed by only 11 men - all volunteers and all of whom died.
9. Monday, June 30, AD70 (Tamuz 5 - Wars 6:1:7): Sixteen Roman soldiers succeeded in
entering the tower of Antonia at the 9 th hour of the night (3 am). They routed the
Jewish guards and summoned the rest of the Roman army who forced the Jews back
into the temple by ferocious hand-to-hand fighting that lasted until the 7 th hour of the
day. In the end the Romans were repulsed and pushed back into the tower of Antonia.
10. Saturday, July 12, AD70 (Tamuz 17 - Wars 6:2:1): The daily sacrifice was cut off.
This was just 11 weeks and 5 days, or 82 days, after the siege was begun. The daily
sacrifice was not cut off by the Romans, who were still laying siege outside the city,
but because the Jews no longer had any men to offer it. One wonders, too, if they had
the wherewithal to make the offering, considering the severity of the famine.
11. Thursday, July 17 th , AD70 (Tamuz 22 - Wars 6:2:9): The Jews began to destroy the
temple so as to hinder Roman progress. Two days later, the Romans set fire to a
further portion so as to provide some clear space.
12. Tuesday, July 22, AD70 (Tamuz 27 - Wars 6:3:1): The Jews laid a fire-trap in the roof
structure of a portion of the temple - and retreated. A number of Romans, pursuing the
retreating Jews, lost their lives when the Jews set fire to the structure. The famine
reached to the limits of extremity (Wars 6:3, 4).
13. Saturday, August 2, AD70 (Ab 8 - Wars 6:4:1): Titus brought battering rams to bear
against the western wall of the inner temple. The rams had for six days without end
been at work on other parts of the temple structure but without making any impression
on it. The Romans had tried to undermine the foundations, but had found the stones
too large and too well placed to make any effective impression against them.
Frustrated, Titus eventually gave orders to burn the wooden gates of the temple.
14. Monday, August 4, AD70 (Ab 10 - Wars 6:4:5): The temple was set ablaze. This was
15 weeks and 1 day (or 106 days) after the siege was begun. The fire was set by the
Jews; an enraged Roman soldier hastened the process, though Titus never intended to
damage the temple and had acted with restraint throughout the siege.
15. Wednesday, August 13, AD70 (Ab 19 - a deduction from Wars 6:8:4): The Romans
began to assemble their siege mounts against the last defences of the city.
16. Saturday, August 30, AD70 (Elul 7 - Wars 6:8:4): Battering-ram assault began on the
city’s last line of defence.
17. Sunday, August 31, AD70 (Elul 8 - Wars 6:10:1): Jerusalem was taken by Titus.
Jewish rebellion that his father, Vespasian, had set out to put down (under Nero - about
February, AD66) was at an end. From the time that the Romans encamped outside
Jerusalem until this day was one day short of 20 weeks - 139 days. From the actual
onset of the siege until the fall of the city was exactly 19 weeks - 133 days.
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